The Scraping Master? Immune to Physical Attacks, Huh?

Edward showed no surprise as he watched the monster "spring" up from the ground and casually pull the bullet from its chest.

He had known all along that conventional firearms were like children's toys against something like this.

"Interesting."

Edward felt no ripples in his heart. If anything, he almost wanted to laugh.

Since transmigrating into this perilous horror-movie world, he had encountered either physical powerhouses like Jason or deranged cannibals whose brains did not work very well. They were dangerous, but still understandable.

But the Soul-Severing Clown, At, was an enemy who made him sense something beyond "rules," second only to Dorothy.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Edward did not waste any more time probing him.

With a shake of his arms, [Ebony and Ivory] traced graceful arcs through his hands, their muzzles spewing an unbroken blaze of fire.

The advantage of infinite ammunition was displayed to its fullest at that moment. The dense rain of bullets formed a metallic storm that blanketed At's vital points.

The bullets precisely tore through the air and bored into At's head, heart, and limbs.

Every bullet carried tremendous kinetic force, driving At backward again and again. Black bloody holes burst open across his body, and his ridiculous black-and-white clown suit became riddled with holes.

Tara, tied to a chair, and Dewen, hanging upside down, were utterly dumbfounded.

Their minds could no longer process the scene before them, one that surpassed all common sense.

A murderous terror clown and a boy who had suddenly appeared and was wildly firing dual pistols—the scene was more insane and unreal than any horror movie they had ever watched.

Under the suppression of the bullet storm, At's towering body was like a battered doll. At last, he fell backward to the floor with a thud.

This time, he had taken at least dozens of bullets. Half his head had been blasted apart, exposing black, tar-like matter beneath it.

Yet Edward still did not lower his guns.

As expected.

The silence lasted less than three seconds.

The "corpse" on the ground began to writhe strangely again. The half of his head that had been blown apart slowly and impossibly came back together like melting wax.

The bullet holes across his body were also filled with black matter at a rate visible to the naked eye.

Then, once more, he stood up in a posture that defied human anatomy, stiff yet fluid.

He tilted his head, seemingly fascinated by the changes in his own body.

He extended a finger and poked at his freshly healed face, then fixed his gaze on Edward again.

The smile painted on his face stretched wider, as if silently mocking Edward's futile efforts.

Physical attacks... basically ineffective? Edward made his judgment. Or rather, his form of existence has already surpassed that of a mere physical entity.

In the instant Edward was analyzing him, At seemed to lose patience with this "new toy" that could not break him.

He abruptly turned his head, his hollow gaze falling once more upon the two girls who had been frightened speechless.

For At, tormenting these weak, helpless souls was his true pleasure.

He ignored Edward and pulled another new "toy" from the black garbage bag behind him.

It was a rusty bone saw, its Sawtooth still hanging with dark red, unidentifiable scraps.

Carrying the bone saw, he resumed his strange, halting gait toward Dewen, who was hanging upside down.

He intended to continue his unfinished "masterpiece."

"Did I give you permission to move?"

A cold voice sounded behind At.

At instinctively turned around.

What greeted him was a fist carrying overwhelming force.

A tyrannical power instantly surged through Edward's limbs and bones. His muscles expanded by an almost imperceptible degree, brimming with explosive strength.

He took one step forward, leaving a fine crack in the concrete beneath his foot. Like a cannonball fired from its barrel, he crossed more than ten meters in an instant and appeared behind At.

Edward held nothing back in this punch. It landed squarely on the center of At's back.

"Boom—!"

The muffled explosion was like a battering ram smashing against a city gate.

Before the immense strength granted by the Ox Talisman, At's towering body was as fragile as paper.

His body instantly curled into a shrimp, launching off the ground like a baseball hit for a home run. He traced an arc through the air and slammed fiercely into the sheet-metal wall of a shipping container at the far end of the warehouse.

"Rumble!"

The heavy metal wall was smashed into a huge human-shaped dent, and even the surrounding steel framework groaned under the strain.

At was "pasted" against the wall like a painting before slowly sliding down and crashing onto the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Inside the warehouse, both girls stopped breathing.

They stared at Edward. Though he looked about their age, he now radiated a heart-palpitating pressure.

Edward shook his hand, his knuckles cracking sharply.

He did not stop.

The best way to deal with an unkillable monster was to deny it any chance to stand back up.

He charged forward again and unleashed a storm of attacks on At, who had just slid to the ground.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Every punch carried the crushing force of the Ox Talisman.

Every kick was enough to snap through steel plates.

Edward made no unnecessary movements. This was the purest, most primitive, most violent beating. He grabbed At by the head and smashed it into the ground again and again.

The hard concrete was pounded into one crater after another, with shattered stones flying everywhere.

Before this absolute strength, At's body was completely torn apart and destroyed. His arms were twisted into spirals, his legs were brutally stomped apart, and his entire chest caved in.

Black, viscous blood splattered everywhere. Edward's body and face were smeared with the cold, foul-smelling liquid.

This was no longer a fight. It was a one-sided, brutal dismantling.

Yet Edward's expression grew increasingly grim.

Because he could feel that no matter how he destroyed this "body," the sensation beneath his hands never changed.

There was no feeling of bones breaking, no feedback of muscles tearing. It was as if he were beating a tough mass of rubber with a fixed shape.

Most terrifyingly, no matter how badly his body was damaged, the eerie smile on At's face never changed.

At last, Edward stopped attacking.

What lay before him was now a puddle of sludge beyond human recognition, mixed with torn cloth and black fluid.

Edward caught his breath. His Pure Yang Body rapidly restored his stamina.

He lowered his head and stared at the sludge, his brows tightly furrowed.

"It's not over."

Sure enough, the sludge began to writhe. The severed limbs and shattered tissue seemed to be controlled by an invisible hand as they started reassembling and fusing together.

Edward did not give it another chance to reform. He had more important things to do.

He turned and looked at the two girls.

With a thought, "Crack! Crack!"

The ropes binding Tara and the chains suspending Dewen snapped apart.

Dewen fell from midair, but Edward used a gentle force of Telekinesis to catch her, allowing her to land safely on the ground.

Both girls were still in extreme terror. Tara slumped limply in her chair, while Dewen curled up on the floor, hugging herself and trembling.

"If you don't want to die, leave now. Run as fast as you can, and don't look back."

Edward's voice held no emotion.

The two girls snapped out of their daze and scrambled toward the warehouse entrance.

The immense joy of surviving the disaster, mixed with the fear still gripping their hearts, brought out every ounce of their potential.

Edward did not turn to watch them. All his attention was focused on the rapidly reforming "sludge" behind him.

Less than ten seconds later, a completely unharmed Soul-Severing Clown, At, stood before him once more.

This time, At did not attack immediately.

He simply stood there with his head tilted, staring at Edward.

That smile remained, but Edward read something different within it.

"Appreciation."

It was as though he were praising Edward for being the only one, in all this time, to destroy his "toy body" so thoroughly.

Then At made an unexpected move.

He gave Edward a comical, exaggerated, deep bow.

Like a circus performer thanking his audience for their applause.

After bowing, he straightened up and pulled out a... trident balloon from his garbage bag.

He inflated the balloon, then bounced around in place like a child while holding it. He even made a face at Edward.

This strange, absurd, and malicious scene pushed the warehouse's atmosphere of terror to its peak.

Mental attack? Or is he provoking me?

Edward's gaze turned completely cold.

He no longer had the patience to play this cat-and-mouse game with the monster.

"Since physical attacks can't completely destroy you..."

Edward slowly raised his right hand, his palm aimed at the clown who was clowning around.

"Then let's try this."

A soft, pure white glow began gathering in his palm.

The light was not dazzling, yet it carried a sacred, solemn aura capable of cleansing all filth.

Purification!